Magnificent seven fire Panthers to victory

SHELF PANTHERS MATCH REPORT 13 DECEMBER 2009
Norristhorpe u-13s 2 Shelf Panthers 7

Seven high-quality goals – including a hat-trick from Robert – helped put the Panthers’ season back on track.

It’s been a frustrating month: a narrow league win at bottom side Hebden Bridge, a cup defeat at Shelley, and then two washed-out weeks when the players must have considered switching allegiance to a sport better suited to the Yorkshire climate – like mud-snorkelling or ark-racing.

Today, by contrast, there was a hint of pale winter sunshine – and a Panthers goal to warm us up within a minute of kick-off. Adam Renard’s ball from the left found Robert unmarked on the edge of the area, and he blasted it home.

Bearing in mind that Shelf had already beaten Norristhorpe 10-1 this season, we could obviously relax. Nothing could possibly go wrong…for about 30 seconds, anyway. Straight from the restart, the home side charged upfield and – before you could say “Don’t count your chickens” – the ball was nestling in the Shelf net.

The Panthers were rattled for a while but, with Tom Mann and Adam Renard driving them forward, they gradually took a grip on the match. They were unlucky not to go in front after 15 minutes when Joe’s shot bounced off the inside of the post and rolled agonisingly along the goal-line.

But two minutes later, Shelf were back in front through a top-notch goal from Toby, who received the ball on the left edge of the area, flicked it neatly over his marker and then steered it into the bottom right corner.

Then Tom Mann made it 3-1 with a well-struck shot over a crowd of players after the ball broke to him on the edge of the area following a corner.

Shelf were starting to turn on the style now, and two more cracking goals followed before half-time. First, Tom Mann broke at speed through midfield and played a perfectly-weighted ball into the path of Robert, who raced clear and finished with aplomb.

Then Tom Wood’s flicked cross from the left-wing set up Joe to score with a firm header inside the six-yard box.

With Shelf playing uphill after the break, the second half was a more even contest, and Norristhorpe would have reduced the deficit after 61 minutes if it hadn’t been for a superb last-ditch tackle by Tom Wood as one of the home strikers prepared to pull the trigger.

When the teams met in September, Toby scored six…this time he had to be content with two, tapping home a goalpoacher’s effort from inside the six-yard box with seven minutes left.

Man of the Match Robert completed his hat-trick with a close-range volley from Sam’s cross before a last-minute goal for Norristhorpe made the final score 7-2.